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Movies Media Entertainment Games

Hollywood's Depiction of Gamers Getting Better? 44

Posted by Zonk from the not-likely dept.
Wired is reporting on the Hollywood depiction of games and gamers, and how it has improved (or not) over the years. From the article: "... has Hollywood finally figured out how to realistically depict gaming culture? For years, they've been achingly bad at it. Gamers have long been accustomed to seeing incredibly weird, off-key portrayals in TV and movies. The trouble began with the first wave of TV ads for video games. They'd inevitably portray the player as a spastic in mid-seizure, flailing away on a joystick while jumping and twitching."
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Hollywood's Depiction of Gamers Getting Better? More

Hollywood's Depiction of Gamers Getting Better?

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  • a spastic in mid-seizure, flailing away on a joystick while jumping and twitching

    ...that this was a video game ad you saw there?

    • Go here. [retrojunk.com] Download the commercial for Legend of Zelda. Tell me that that is what gamers acted like, even back in the eighties.
      • I think it has more to do with the perceived market. I know I did things as stupid as the second add growing up, but I was far younger than the person portrayed. I could definatly see an 8 year old doing that though. As far as an 8 year old able to play Zelda I am not entirly sure, but I would expect they could superficially at least.
        • I was eight around the time Zelda came out. In any case, even as a kid, I was never the gamer that leaned into turns with the controller in Rad Racer or inexplicably jerked the controller around when playing Mario. I've always gamed in exactly the same way...zoned out with occasional bursts of rage when frustration reaches a boiling point. (Most often nowadays it happens in Battlefield 2.)
          • I didn't mean that. I meant running around IRL pretending there were Octorocs ect. Not saying you did that, just that it is a typical 8 year old thing to do, gamer or not.

      • Re:are you sure? (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Frizzle Fry ( 149026 ) on Thursday September 29, 2005 @02:19AM (#13673812) Homepage
        TV and movies don't portray anyone accurately. There is nothing special about "gamers" here.
  • I don't watch much tv or movies, I prefer games. I do sometimes twitch though.

  • Amazing forsight maybe? (Score:4, Funny)

    by Darune ( 716587 ) on Wednesday September 28, 2005 @07:37PM (#13671749)
    With the revolution wont people be holding their remote, jumping and flailing? ;p

  • 40-year-old virgin (Score:4, Funny)

    by kyle90 ( 827345 ) <kyle90@gmail.com> on Wednesday September 28, 2005 @07:39PM (#13671760) Homepage Journal
    I absolutely loved that scene... in fact, the whole movie seemed to be embedded with references to video games and computer culture: they worked at an electronics store, played video games, stole CD-Rs, sold things on e-bay... And yeah, Andy does have a sweet video game chair. I want that chair.

  • Huh? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Daxster ( 854610 ) on Wednesday September 28, 2005 @07:44PM (#13671810) Homepage
    They'd inevitably portray the player as a spastic in mid-seizure, flailing away on a joystick while jumping and twitching.

    Wait wait wait....are the slashdot editors telling us that that isn't normal? Crap.

  • insulting (Score:3, Funny)

    by dbhankins ( 688931 ) on Wednesday September 28, 2005 @07:47PM (#13671830)
    When an association is made in the media between two groups such as these, the real question is:

    Who's more insulted?

  • true heroes (Score:5, Insightful)

    by m487396 ( 807861 ) on Wednesday September 28, 2005 @07:56PM (#13671902)
    None better gamers than Shaun and his buddy Ed!

    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0365748/ [imdb.com]
    • or their Spaced [imdb.com] incarnations, Tim & Mike..

      Episode 1.3, "Art", features Tim (Simon Pegg) playing Resident Evil for 24 hours straight, having taken speed the night before. This later leads him to hallucinate that zombies are attacking everyone, which in turn led to the inspiration for the movie Shaun of the Dead

      http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0187664/ [imdb.com]

  • The O.C. (Score:5, Informative)

    by c0d3h4x0r ( 604141 ) on Wednesday September 28, 2005 @08:05PM (#13671967) Homepage Journal
    Along with other great aspects about the writing and acting in "The O.C.", the various scenes in which the main characters are playing video games are pretty well done, very similar to what the author of this article described in "The 40-year old virgin".

    Tangential mini-review: While the promos for "The O.C." make it out to be extremely shallow typical soap-opera drivel, the writing, acting, and characters are great. So is the show's self-deprecating sense of humor, as it pokes fun at the characters' obsession with a show called "The Valley", which is a parody of "The O.C." itself.

  • When you start at the bottom the only place you can go is up...

  • Reality (Score:2, Interesting)

    by TeamAwsom ( 918416 )

    I don't know that having somebody sitting quite still staring at a screen makes for compelling viewing. Normally the only people who twitch are the ones that don't often play games. Seems to me the more you play the more zombielike you get. Maybe it is interesting in an art house kind of way but since when were hollywood interested in making art house?

    I kind of enjoy the hilarity of the hollywood depiction though. I never go to see movies with this type of subject matter thinking I'm going to get a se

  • Today's Filmmakers Grew Up With Games (Score:3, Interesting)

    by MiceHead ( 723398 ) on Wednesday September 28, 2005 @10:56PM (#13672816) Homepage
    I think that it became most clear to me that filmmakers "understood" video games during the scene introducing Mike Teevee in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory [imdb.com]. If I caught it right, Mike was playing a modern 3D first-person shooter that looked like Doom 3; and he was playing this on something that looked like an Atari 2600.

    And that, my friends, is called cannibalism. Wait -- I mean that that, my friends, seemed an intentional irony, suggesting that there were gamers in the crew. Who would slip such a reference in, but someone with a deep and possibly unhealthy appreciation of video games?
    __________
    www.dejobaan.com - Deep and possibly unhealthy appreciation of video games.
    • Yep, and those violent twitches and screams is how a lot of kids who get into their VG's act. I certainly did between the age of 10 and 15. Then all of a sudden I started getting laughed at by my peers for my violent struggles with the controller and my attempts to peer around buildings in gta. So now I've adapted the standard gamer zombie pose, everything tense, but very little movement, dead to the world and a hugely intense expression pointed at the screen. The latter is probably a more commonly foun
    • I think that it became most clear to me that filmmakers "understood" video games during the scene introducing Mike Teevee in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. If I caught it right, Mike was playing a modern 3D first-person shooter that looked like Doom 3; and he was playing this on something that looked like an Atari 2600.

      For a minute, I thought you were talking about the 1971 Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory [imdb.com], and I was a bit confused. IIRC, in that one, Mike Teevee was playing a "modern" shooter,

  • The Wizard (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I think Hollywood has had its moments where gamers were portrayed in an appropriate light. Take The Wizard for example. What better movie is there where a gamer takes his skills all the way to the top, not to mention along the way being jealous of other mens hardware.... Ooooh damn do I miss the powerglove =P~
  • How about their representation of games .

    I must save the fair gnome princes Gorgonela from the stoat palace , wherein lies the Evil Stoat king Rover .
    I must fight the endless armies of Snorg ,only pushing right on the controller and holding down/madly whacking a button .
    My reward for this achievement will be a high score slightly larger than the last time ..
  • I'm sure some people would agree with me when I say that Hollywood is actually redefining the general view of video gamers. For example, a good science fiction movie is almost guaranteed to have a video game released with it. Even television has ascended to such a level of 'interactive media' with shows and mini-series like Lost, which feed upon human interaction with mysterious websites to generate intrigue and hype.
     
    In a sense we're playing the game before we're even buying it.
    • So Hollywood now thinks gamers like Sci-Fi and TV Series that border on being Sci-Fi? That sounds like the old Hollywood view of video gamers to me. Now if you were to say that Hollywood is increasing the use of video games as they tie into movies and TV, I would agree with you.

  • Realistic depiction of gamers is so 1996. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by hal2814 ( 725639 ) on Thursday September 29, 2005 @08:26AM (#13674887)
    "has Hollywood finally figured out how to realistically depict gaming culture?"

    Anyone who thinks this is a recent trend needs to check out what I call the "Video Hockey Trilogy." The movies "Swingers," "Beautiful Girls," and "Chasing Amy" all had pretty prominent scenes where main characters in the movie sat around and played video hockey. These weren't the guys from "War Games" or "Cloak and Dagger." They were just normal people who enjoyed playing hockey on the Genesis ("Beautiful Girls" MIGHT have been an SNES). They also played it pretty realistically. Nobody looked like they were having seizures except for a character from "Swingers." The seizure like movements there were in line with what you would expect from the character.
  • take a cue from some "funny" videos that are released from time to time on joke websites, in which gamers are taped without their knowledge while playing...

    I remember one example of a kid playing online multiplayer Halo2 with the headset and going into game-rage, cursing into his headset, throwing his controller on the ground, just because he was getting pwn3d repeatedly.
  • Here [putfile.com] is a fairly accurate portrayal...
  • No . next question.

    Ok, more reference, check Uwe Bowell movies, the next generation of game movies and the Doom movie, hollywood still has the idea that gamers are teenagers who use "Xtreme" as an adjective and consume beer and pizza (or other stimulants) instead of eating and sleeping. I think they got us mixed up with the surfers and skateboard stereotypes. If they depict a gamer in a movie (not just in one stupid scene), it will probably be under those characteristics. (check the ngage and block buster
  • "The trouble began with the first wave of TV ads for video games. They'd inevitably portray the player as a spastic in mid-seizure, flailing away on a joystick while jumping and twitching.""

    I think there are two reasons for the change.

    First, the game grpahics are much better now -- they can focus on portraying the game itself. Back in the day, they had to convey exciting gameplay by depicting excited gamers.

    Second, the market has changed. The industry has changed its primary market from kids and tee
  • Hollywood didn't always give us the "spazed" gamer. Anyone remember "The Wizard", where that little kid was a video game ace? Okay, maybe he wasn't exactly normal, but he was a heck of a lot more content at gaming than anything else Hollywood has done.

    I align myself with him in a way. When I'm playing a game, I'm not jerking the controller or keyboard towards where my character's going. I talk to myself sometimes when I'm playing, either to comment myself or when something throws me off (very rarely

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